Winter Equinox was the obvious choice for the Wavelength happening closest to this year's Winter Solstice. Dan Roberts, Brad Weber and sisters Lauren and Robyn Yakiwchuk are classically-trained post-rock fans and have been working hard since forming six months ago. Shaunna Bednarek, Lauren and Brad all logged on to MSN and the following conversation ensued.

LAUREN, OBVIOUSLY YOU KNOW ROBYN BECAUSE YOU'RE RELATED. HOW DID THE REST OF THE BAND COME TOGETHER? LY: I met Brad last December, when I went to see his old band play. He played a set of music from his solo CD, as well. I really liked what I heard and we both talked and realized we had very similar interests in music. I met Dan through Brad, because Dan and Brad were already in a band together and had been making music together for years. Brad and Dan started to record a song together and asked me to write some keyboard parts to the song. That song ("Hazy Fader") was the first real "band" song. We decided that we had to start up a band together since that was such a success. And so, the band began, around April-May of this year. Since we have so many parts to our songs, we needed someone else to play with us. My sister was our first choice. She's a really good pianist, and she also plays the flute, which was a good addition to our sound.

WITH LAUREN AND ROBYN LIVING IN DUNDAS AND BRAD AND DAN IN WATERLOO, HOW DOES REHEARSING WORK OUT? BW: It's close enough not to be much of a hassle driving back and forth for practices. And we can draw people out from two different cities, people that we already know, so that's pretty nice. LY: Sometimes we practice at Brad's house and sometimes we practice at my house. We just take turns, usually depending on where our next show is. We'll play at the person's house that's closest to that city.

YOU GUYS ARE STARTING TO PLAY A LOT MORE SHOWS AROUND TORONTO AND ARE BRINGING IN A LOT OF BANDS THAT AREN'T VERY WELL-KNOWN HERE. IS EXPANDING THE TORONTO INDIE SCENE THROUGHOUT ONTARIO IMPORTANT TO YOU GUYS? BW: We are trying to make connections with bands both in and outside of the Toronto area. We aren't really conscious of where these bands originate from, we are just seeking out like-minded musicians to play shows with that we think will be successful... Making connections with bands in other cities will hopefully allow our music to reach new audiences.

A LITTLE BIRDIE BY THE NAME OF "MAYFUCK" ONCE ACCUSED BRAD OF ONLY LIKING "POST-ROCK INSTRUMENTAL STUFF." ANY TRUTH TO THIS? BW: I went through a phase of mostly listening to instrumental music when I discovered a lot of cool artists in the post-rock/glitch/electronic areas... Nowadays I listen to a lot of different styles, generally artists who are creative and try to experiment a bit with their music. LY: We're influenced by a lot of instrumental bands, like Tortoise, Do Make Say Think, Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky. We really enjoy it. However, we're not entirely limited by this. We'll probably include some vocals in the future. We'd like to use vocals as more of an instrument, rather than a main focus of the song.

WHAT EXACTLY IS A WINTER EQUINOX? LY: It really doesn't mean anything. A "Winter Equinox" doesn't actually exist. I guess it does now! We've also started calling ourselves "Winter EQ"...We have some sort of running inside joke with the letter Q.

WELL, I GOOGLED IT, AND APPARENTLY THERE'S ALSO A `70S BLAXPLOITATION FLICK CALLED WINTER EQUINOX. LY: I've never even heard of that! Interesting, the things you can find out from a Google search. BW: Hopefully they won't sue us, you never know these days. It happened to Manitoba, didn't it?

CARIBOU IS SUCH A DUMB NAME. AND THEN THERE'S DEATH FROM ABOVE "1979". LY: Bush "X". Classic.

MAYBE YOU GUYS COULD GO BY "WINTER EQUINOX "Q"" BW: Anything to add more Q's!